Genrefication is the process of assigning genres to books with the intent of helping patrons find books of interest. Genrefying can be tailored to fit the needs of the library's patrons (students and staff)

All of our school libraries have transitioned into Genrefied libraries. The preschool, 3 elementary schools, and junior high genrefied all books in their library.

The high school genrefied the fiction books but kept the nonfiction in a Dewey Decimal System in order to familiarize students with a catalog system they may see in a college setting.

Below are the reasons why the district transitioned to this choice:

The preschool and all three elementary schools have classified picture books

All six schools have the same fiction categories except for a couple that is marked.

The nonfiction categories are identical but the subcategories are grade-level appropriate.

To make the library user-friendly and easier for our younger students to access books, we have shifted the library so all books will be in bins in our three elementary schools and preschool. This bin system will allow students to take the bins off the shelves and browse through the books. Many of our teachers also use a bin system in their classrooms to organize their books, so this helps students easily locate books without needing to learn two different systems.

Positives for our library staff.

• This system also allows for our library staff to put books away quickly and allows anyone to shelve books since it will be entirely based on the genre of the book.

• Schools that have made this transition saw a large increase in circulation, especially in the nonfiction section.

• As our library grows, the bins will make it easier for library staff to add new books to the collection without having to spend a lot of time shifting books around to fit.